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Monday, December 29, 2014

Killing the Messengers: How the GMO Industry Responds to Critics (And How We Push Back)

In 1962, Rachel Carson published
a groundbreaking expose on the harmful effects of cancer-causing
pesticides like DDT. Almost immediately, she found herself the target of
a nasty smear campaign orchestrated by the poison’s manufacturer, a
company based in St. Louis.

This company subjected Carson and her book, “Silent Spring”,
to withering attacks. It went so far as to publish a spoof of her work,
titled “The Desolate Year”, that portrayed a world without
cancer-causing agents like DDT as a nightmare world overtaken by famine
and insects. Despite these attacks, “Silent Spring” went on to sell
millions of copies and win the National Book Award. Today, it is widely
celebrated as the book that birthed the environmental movement.

Carson’s
antagonist – the Monsanto Company – did not win any awards for “The
Desolate Year.” The dreadful scenarios outlined in its caustic manifesto
failed to occur when the US banned DDT in 1972. Today, the screed has
largely been forgotten. But Carson’s experience with Monsanto is an
important story to remember because, four decades later, Monsanto
continues to wield these ruthless tactics against a new generation of
activists.

The
debate over Monsanto’s pesticides continues, but it has expanded to
include a troubling new product line – Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMOs). If anything has become clear in the debate over the dangers of
GMOs, it is this: GMO companies like Monsanto will do or say anything to
deny the growing number of credible concerns about its products.

This
includes launching aggressive attacks like those Carson endured.
Whenever confronted with effective criticism, the GMO industry and its
apologists typically seek to “kill the messenger” rather than debate the
facts.

In August, New Yorker writer Michael Specter published aterribly flawed piece clearly
intended to undermine my credibility as one who speaks out against
GMOs. Oddly, he failed to interview any other critics of GMOs, making it
seem as if I am the only scientist expressing serious concerns about
them. How ridiculous!

Equally
troubling was Specter’s reliance on myths perpetuated by Monsanto and
its allies to downplay the controversy – and hype the supposed benefits –
of GMOs. Navdanya International has published an informative and
comprehensive rebuttal of Specter’s piece here. I encourage readers to use it as a resource in the ongoing debate over GMOs.

In
addition to exposing Specter’s personal attacks on me personally, the
rebuttal also shines a light on Specter’s shoddy research. Specifically,
it dismantles his pro-GMO arguments by clearly demonstrating that they
are rooted in easily disproven falsehoods.

For
instance, Specter embarrassingly evokes India’s 1943 Bengal Famine to
bolster his case for GMOs, asserting that GMOs could have averted a food
shortage. He seems to be completely unaware of the fact that famines
often occur in places with adequate food supply. In fact, such was the
case in 1943, when Britain was exporting food from India while three
million Bengalis starved to death.

As
the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen clarified decades
ago, a lack of political and economic entitlement to food – rather than
a lack of food supply – is often the cause of famine. The Bengal Famine
was not caused by a shortage of food. It was caused by an imbalance of
power.

This
same imbalance of power is what profit-hungry multinational
corporations like Monsanto tend to impose on farmers and citizens around
the world. Farmers in India’s cotton belt, burdened by heavy debt due
to Monsanto’s expensive seed pricing scheme, are committing suicide in
alarming numbers. If GMO corporations like Monsanto wanted to help the
poor, they could start by lifting the debt burden off of these farmers.

Of
course, anyone who dares to challenge immoral GMO monopolies quickly
finds him or herself accused of fomenting famine. In this respect, not
much has changed since Rachel Carson’s time. But this baseless old
famine canard failed to stop Carson, whose work led to a US ban on DDT
in 1972. It will also fail to stop those of us working to raise public
awareness of the dangers posed by GMOs and pesticides in the 21st
century.

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